Sunday, April 04, 2010

My cousin Iain tweeted that he'd made some "Easter nests" the other night. Cue: wave of nostalgia for childhood Easter holidays covered in chocolate. For some reason I always associate these little piles of chocolate-coated breakfast cereal decorated with Mini-Eggs with my Aunt Susie (Iain's mum) so I guess she always made them. Our families would often see each other at some point around the Spring holidays. I'm the one with the long hair trying to be a scary lion.

I'd planned to bake brownies for my mum and little brother instead of giving them a chocolate egg each but, after reading Iain's tweet, decided Easter Nests were in order. You should use mashed up Shredded Wheat for nests because it looks the most stick-like. Nestle products aren't allowed in our flat, so I ended up using Co-op Bran Flakes instead. Much more fiber, plus fortified with iron (people who like magnets: follow that link). I also used plain rather than milk chocolate, which I melted with some golden syrup to sweeten and give a slight chew to the texture. The result are rather grown up Easter Nests, best eaten slowly over a cup of tea. Flatmate-Kirsty had a glass of milk with hers. They are strong and earthy, but very good.

I made a round of brownies for mum and Jim too. He'd only complain otherwise (apparently baking brownies is what big sisters are for, even when you're both speedily approaching 30).

I used this awesome recipe. They are also exceedingly chocolaty and best eaten in small quantities with a cup of tea, especially as I decreased the sugar quantity slightly to bring out the chocolate. Still, I dare say Mum and Jim will get through them. Kirsty beat me with the whole Easter baking though, because she fought with some slightly old yeast to make annoyingly perfect hot cross buns (everything Kirsty makes is annoyingly perfect).

Normal knit blogging will resume in a week or so. I've got an arm and a half to do on my top-down Demi and only about another half ball more to knit of the leaves scarf, so I hope I'll have an FO to show. You can also find more work related blogging from me here (including piece about a 1958 Girls-own chemistry set which featured a pink microscope).